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I'm gonna buy an AR - HELP !!
Colt Super
Member Posts: 31,007 ✭
I'm going to buy one, even though I'm not a fan of them. I think it's an historically desirable firearm for a collection.
I've already decided NOT to buy one that is an assemblage of various company's parts.
I've pretty much decided to get a Colt, but have not completely eliminated other well-known brands if there is sufficient reason to consider them. Like: quality, durability, VALUE, etc..
May I please have suggestions as to which one ??
I know nothing of these firearms, except I don't like the ones that have a rattle in the stock.
Please help me.
Thank you.
Doug
I've already decided NOT to buy one that is an assemblage of various company's parts.
I've pretty much decided to get a Colt, but have not completely eliminated other well-known brands if there is sufficient reason to consider them. Like: quality, durability, VALUE, etc..
May I please have suggestions as to which one ??
I know nothing of these firearms, except I don't like the ones that have a rattle in the stock.
Please help me.
Thank you.
Doug
Comments
I shopped and shopped thinking I wanted a Colt green label. I finally realized that if I wanted it for a shooter, and I did, then why pay 2-3 times the money for the word "Colt" on the side of it? It is of my opinion that a Colt would hold its value for a collection, and if one simply wanted a shooter AR then there are alot of other options out there.
Completely agree.
Jon
Buy ya a Colt SP-1. [^]
+1, Thats as good a start as any I can think of. Light, handy, and still a full length rifle. Packing an A1 weight rifle will spoil you.[:)]
I think SP-1s have 1-12" twist rate.
If you want something accurate 1-9" or 1-8"twist in a mid contour or NM contour would be a better choice. They will often group inside an inch with good ammo.
I posted MHO over on 1776.
[;)][:D]
I own a Bushy and love it. If I were going to get another, I'd go with Rock River.
I have a colt 9mm, like this one;
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=129759993
it's a GREAT gun and will hold it's value, even as a shooter.
this listing is actually a great deal, the 32 round factory mags sell for $75-100 each, and you nice optics as well.
just my 2c.
I don't have any connection with this seller.
did you get your knives?
tom
I think it's an historically desirable firearm for a collection.
If you are going for "historical" significance, and/or for a "collection" why not go with the Armalite AR-15, which was designed by Eugene Stoner? Since ArmaLite sold its rights to the AR-15 to Colt in 1959, why would you want a Colt? Unless you just want to pay more money.
If you just want a shooter, RRA, Bushmaster, and others would fit the bill nicely.
http://www.lwrifles.com/
I have another one on the way for my son's 9th birthday.
If I were you, I would not rush out to quickly to get anything. Go do yourself some reading, find friends who will let you shoot theirs (if you are in the Raleigh, NC area you have a standing invitation from me) and think about what you want out of this rifle.
I am a big fan of the Gun Digest AR-15 books by Patrick Sweeney http://www.amazon.com/Gun-Digest-Book-AR-15/dp/0873499476
I use mine mostly for shooting household garbage and golf balls. It also compensates for my perceived shortness in other areas. [:D]
doug,
I have a colt 9mm, like this one;
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=129759993
it's a GREAT gun and will hold it's value, even as a shooter.
this listing is actually a great deal, the 32 round factory mags sell for $75-100 each, and you nice optics as well.
just my 2c.
I don't have any connection with this seller.
did you get your knives? ???
tom
Getting senile.
Which knives - I've been buying quite a few ??
Thanks,
Doug
I have a DoubleStar and love it. Functions flawlessly and eats everything I feed it.
I have another one on the way for my son's 9th birthday.
If I were you, I would not rush out to quickly to get anything. Go do yourself some reading, find friends who will let you shoot theirs (if you are in the Raleigh, NC area you have a standing invitation from me) and think about what you want out of this rifle.
I am a big fan of the Gun Digest AR-15 books by Patrick Sweeney http://www.amazon.com/Gun-Digest-Book-AR-15/dp/0873499476
I use mine mostly for shooting household garbage and golf balls. It also compensates for my perceived shortness in other areas. [:D]
That is what I am doing, now.
Good advice !!
Thank you.
Doug
If you are going for "historical" significance, and/or for a "collection" why not go with the Armalite AR-15, which was designed by Eugene Stoner? Since ArmaLite sold its rights to the AR-15 to Colt in 1959, why would you want a Colt? Unless you just want to pay more money.
If you just want a shooter, RRA, Bushmaster, and others would fit the bill nicely. [/size=2]It's true that Fairchild/Armalite designed the AR15, but there was never an Armalite marked AR15 outside the handful provided for US military trials in the late 50's. Colt later bought the design and was the first to actually produce and successfully market it.
In it's final days Armalite was a British owned company and all manufacturing was actually by Sterling, but after they completely folded their last company head retained rights to the trademark. Many years later Eagle Arms, who had been manufacturing AR15 clones for quite some time, bought these trademark rights and began slapping it on their rifles for marketing purposes - and it's worked well for them.
These rifles aren't even manufactured to military specs per Stoner's design. They're just another clone but wear the Armalite badge to allow potential buyers to assume they're somehow related to the original item.
A long deceased company called Armalite originated this design, but Colt is the one who actually gave it historical significance.
I read an article in a magazine where the author and a friend took two stock Stag carbines to a rifle school. They had to furnish their own ammo and took 10,000 rounds of Wolf ammo. They were laughed at when they arrived for their choice in weapon and ammo.
The only change they made to the rifles was to install a Dfender D-ring on the extractor.
At the end of the class in which they'd fired almost all of the 10,000 rounds, they'd had only two malfunctions, both attibuted to the ammo.
I recently bought another Stag carbine from a guy that decided to sell it in order to buy a S&W AR15. (because the S&W was a better name brand) I got the Stag on the cheap and didn't tell him Stag made the receivers for S&W's when Smith first started making AR's.
Get a STAG, you won't be sorry!!!
I read an article in a magazine where the author and a friend took two stock Stag carbines to a rifle school. They had to furnish their own ammo and took 10,000 rounds of Wolf ammo. They were laughed at when they arrived for their choice in weapon and ammo.
The only change they made to the rifles was to install a Dfender D-ring on the extractor.
At the end of the class in which they'd fired almost all of the 10,000 rounds, they'd had only two malfunctions, both attibuted to the ammo.
I recently bought another Stag carbine from a guy that decided to sell it in order to buy a S&W AR15. (because the S&W was a better name brand) I got the Stag on the cheap and didn't tell him Stag made the receivers for S&W's when Smith first started making AR's.
Get a STAG, you won't be sorry!!!
+1 (Just don't shoot that crap Wolf Ammo)
Otherwise, get a Stag or something else. I'm very partial to Stag.
You'll want to shoot it if you get an AR.
223 ammo is expensive. You might want to consider a 22LR conversion kit for it also. I bought one and had one malfunction with 1500 rounds fired. I didn't shoot the more expensive CCI either. I shot just normal Remington Golden bullets. I had pretty good accuracy with it also. I can't say it was pin point or not as I'm still trying to learn the iron sights on a AR.
The quality of the FAR is, IMO, superior.
Local shop has a number of Bushmasters, NIB for $ 979.00. Seems that pricing is beginning to return to normal.
Brad Steele
Rock River Arms.
What makes it superior, Son ??
Dad
lfd
I'm going to buy one, even though I'm not a fan of them. I think it's an historically desirable firearm for a collection.
I've already decided NOT to buy one that is an assemblage of various company's parts.
I've pretty much decided to get a Colt, but have not completely eliminated other well-known brands if there is sufficient reason to consider them. Like: quality, durability, VALUE, etc..
May I please have suggestions as to which one ??
I know nothing of these firearms, except I don't like the ones that have a rattle in the stock.
Please help me.
Thank you.
Doug
Hi Doug,
If your operative words are "historically desirable", I'd agree with the others that a Colt SP-1 is a choice worthy of your consideration...
I've owned one for over 30 years and have always been pleased with it's classic simplicity, well thought out functional egronomics, and user friendly ease of operation even though I only use it as a 22lr plinker.
It's not all gee-whiz-bang-techno gimmickry...
but then neither am I. [:)]
Take Care,
Greg
Why no forward assist ??
Thank you.
Doug
Stoner didn't design it with a forward assist and resisted efforts to incorporate one. The Army insisted on it - which is where the M16A1 came in - but the original M16 continued being manufactured without it.
It might be a build-up using retro parts, but another giveaway to his rifle's possible age is the absence of a 'fence' below the ejection port and around the mag release. That's an old 'slab side' style receiver. Nice.
You see other manufacturers claim to be mil spec, but by slight of hand (words?) they're really only stating their's contain some mil spec parts. These rifles can be a crap shoot because they obtain their parts from different sources depending upon who can give them the best deal at the time. For example, one S&W might have all Colt lower receiver internals but the next might contain parts from someone you've never heard of.
For this reason, just because one guy had a great experience with a certain aftermarket AR doesn't mean all of that manufacture are good.
This is the reason you pay a bit more for a Colt and they hold their value so well, not just brand snobbery.
the swiss army knives I paid for and shipped to you.
tom
This is the reason you pay a bit more for a Colt and they hold their value so well, not just brand snobbery.
Colts are not without flaw either though. My brothers department had some Colt AR's and they had many jamming issues with them and ended up selling them. I had a Colt Defender and that thing would stovepipe even after I had a gunsmith try and work it out.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not hating on Colt. I'm just saying Colt is not the end all of reliablity like a Glock is.[:o)] I also only buy work horse firearms that I won't cry if they get a scratch (although I avoid it). The only guns exempt from this is the heirlooms my father passed down to me.
Colts are not without flaw either though. My brothers department had some Colt AR's and they had many jamming issues with them and ended up selling them.Notice how often you hear of specific units where multiple members experience issues with these rifles, but other units guns run like tops.
No offense, but their local maintenance procedures and/or armorer program might have been lacking. Did they even have a trained armorer there to keep things straight?
I've seen some seriously misguided maintenance procedures going on based upon what people read in some cop magazine or supposedly learned in the military.
quote:Originally posted by Kodiakk
Colts are not without flaw either though. My brothers department had some Colt AR's and they had many jamming issues with them and ended up selling them.Notice how often you hear of specific units where multiple members experience issues with these rifles, but other units guns run like tops.
No offense, but their local maintenance procedures and/or armorer program might have been lacking. Did they even have a trained armorer there to keep things straight?
I've seen some seriously misguided maintenance procedures going on based upon what people read in some cop magazine or supposedly learned in the military.
Well there might of been maintence problems. My brother is a gun nut and I beleive he knows what he's doing and worked on them. He has 5 years as MP and over 10 as a police officer. He also works at the state police training place as a firearms instructor. He's given me great pointers on maintaining my personal AR that I've not had a problem with. I know he is a Glock armorer, and beleive he was a armorers for the M-16's they used in the Army. Not entirely sure though.
He has a long history and should know what he's doing with them. I'd sure love to find out he wasn't doing something right in maintaining them. It'd give me loads upon loads of free heckling entertainment. [:D]
There are to many directions and variables to give a suggestion on an AR without first deciding what isit is you want to do with it.
quote:Which knives - I've been buying quite a few ??
the swiss army knives I paid for and shipped to you.
tom
Just now got them out of the mailbox.
I wasn't thinking of your knives, 'cause I'm an idiot.
The money will be on the way on Monday.
Very kind of you to do that Tom.
If there is anything I can ever do for YOU, just let me know.
Thank you.
Doug